After a few minutes of steady riding, the arroyo divided itself into two branches. Well within the right-hand branch were three pieces of quartz, laid in a line as the other two had been.
“What would you argue from that, Dell?” queried the scout.
“Why,” answered the girl, “I should say that Little Cayuse followed the right-hand fork.”
“Anything else?”
“And that the Apache had been joined by another.”
“Right again. Can you shoot?”
“A little,” Dell answered diffidently. “I can throw a rope, or a knife, too—after a fashion. I have had entire charge of the Double D Ranch ever since my father died, three years ago.”
Her voice quivered a little, but almost instantly she put her emotion from her.
The scout made no answer. Slowly Dell Dauntless was revealing herself to him as a spirited and capable young woman.